NASA: We May Be On the Verge of a 'Mini-Maunder' Event
by George Washington
Washington's
Blog
All climate
scientists agree that the sun affects Earth’s climate to
some extent. They only disagree about whether or not
the effect form the sun is minor compared to man-made causes.
We noted
in 2011:
This week,
scientists from the US Solar Observatory and the US Air Force
Research Laboratory have discovered
– to their great surprise – that the sun’s activity is declining,
and that we might experience the lowest solar output we’ve seen
since 1645-1715. The Register
describes
it in dramatic tones:
What may
be the science story of the century is breaking this evening.
Scientists
who are convinced that global warming is a serious threat to our
planet say that such a reduced solar output would simply buy us
more time … delaying the warming trend, but not stopping or reversing
it.
On the other
hand, scientists who are skeptical about global warming say that
the threat is a new mini ice age. (Remember that scientists
have been convinced in the past that we would have a new ice age,
and even considered pouring soot over the arctic in the 1970s
to help melt the ice – in order to prevent another ice age.
Obama’s top science advisor was one
of those warning of a new ice age in the 1970s. And see this.)
NASA reports
this week that we may be on
the verge of another Maunder Minimum (a period with an unusually
low number of sunspots, leading to colder temperatures):
Much has
been made of the probable connection between the Maunder Minimum,
a 70-year deficit of sunspots in the late 17th-early
18th century, and the coldest part of the Little Ice Age, during
which Europe and North America were subjected to bitterly cold
winters. The mechanism for that regional cooling could have been
a drop in the sun’s EUV output; this is, however, speculative.
Read
the rest of the article
January
15, 2013
George
Washington blogs at Washington's
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